The Layer That Comes With You B
A Letter From a Reader
At 55 I Had Something Warm on Every Chair and I Was Still Cold in My Own House
Every chair in my house had something on it.
A folded throw over the arm of the chair I read in. A knitted shawl over the back of a dining chair. A fleece on the kitchen chair that I keep on until somebody rings the doorbell. I did not buy any of it on purpose. Warm things collect in a house where somebody is cold.
The warm thing was always in the room I had just left.
Because then I get up. For the kettle, for the door, for the mail. Whatever was over my knees stays on the seat. The cold starts again from the beginning, three or four times an evening.
Helene dressed actors at a theatre in Victoria for thirty years. She gave me the rule in one sentence. You judge a warm layer at the moment you stand up, not while you sit in it.
See The Cardigan I Am Talking About
The standing up test
Anything you have to hold shut, pinch closed or drape again over your shoulders gets left behind, because your hands are needed for something else within four seconds of standing. A layer comes with you only if your body carries it and your hands stay free.
I ran it on everything I own. The throw failed at once. The shawl failed the moment I picked up a full laundry basket.
What I ended up with
It is a cardigan. Helene sent the link two days later with no message, which is very her. There is one zip that runs from the hem to the top of the collar, so I can wear it open over a blouse or close it all the way to my throat, and either way it needs no hand to keep it shut.
Then the pockets. Two roomy patch pockets sit exactly where my hands fall, and they take a phone and my keys. That is the whole reason it comes with me. Not because it is warmer than the throw, because it is not. Because my hands are free and I am still wearing it by the time I reach the door.
It is a relaxed shape that sits at the hip, in a ribbed knit with a ribbed collar, ribbed cuffs and ribbed pockets, in sizes S to 3XL. Mine is the grey. I have looked at the green twice since.
What happened at Monique's birthday
Monique turned 60 last month and we ate in her garden until it got cold, which in Montreal is about ten past eight. I got up four times. For plates, for the door, for more wine, for a child who fell off the step. Each time I stood up still wearing the thing I had been warm in.
Four women asked me where it was from. Four. One of them was Louise, who I have known since our children were at elementary school and who has never once commented on anything I have worn. She said I looked like I had come from something rather than come down from a nap.
Three things I have learned since
One. The pockets are not for carrying things. They are the reason my hands are not holding the cardigan, which is the reason the cardigan is still on me two rooms later.
Two. The zip matters more than the wool. Open over a blouse in the afternoon, closed at the throat on the back steps at ten, and I have not once had to gather anything at the front.
Three. There is now one chair in this house with nothing on it, and I am the reason for that.
What it is not
It is a knit, not a coat. It will not keep rain out and it will do nothing at all for you in January. The zip is metal, so on a cold evening the top of it is unfriendly against your chin for the first few seconds. If what you want is outerwear, this is not it, and I would rather tell you that now.
About the price
The price made me suspicious rather than pleased. It is $69.95, down from $174.95, and I wanted to know why before I believed it. It is a small Canadian shop that sells direct, so there is no department store taking a cut in the middle, and this run is being cleared out before the season turns. Real people, mixed opinions, mostly very good. There is no catch that I have found.
See If Your Size Is Still There
Do not buy this because you are cold. Buy it if you keep leaving the warm thing behind you. Stand up in your own living room tonight, walk to the kettle, and look at what stayed on the chair. That is the whole test.
The sale is on at the moment and the middle sizes are the ones that go first, and once this run has sold through that is it until next year.
Claire
Annika Cozy Cardigan
- One zip runs from the hem to the top of the collar, so you can wear it open or close it to the throat
- Two roomy patch pockets sit exactly where your hands fall, so your phone and your keys have somewhere to go
- Soft and light against the skin, with just enough weight to fall properly instead of clinging
- Relaxed fit that sits at the hip, in sizes S to 3XL
- Six colours: grey, black, yellow, orange, pink and green
- Free shipping across Canada and a 30 day money back guarantee
Sixty percent off while this run lasts. The middle sizes go first.
About the writer. Claire Beaulieu is 55 and lives in Outremont, Montreal, where she works as an independent interior design consultant. She has two grown children, walks the mountain on Sunday mornings and listens to a considerable amount of jazz. She writes here about what she is actually wearing.
This page is an advertisement for EmmaVancouver.